Ty i Ja or ‘You and I’ magazine, was a 64 pp publication first published in Warsaw, Poland in 1959 and saw it end in the 1980s after constant censorship pressures.

The magazine was published monthly and was the only publication of its kind in Poland that discussed literature, science, design, poetry, fashion and graphic art. The covers featured expressive and impressive examples of modern design and illustration and would feature works from prominent Polish designers of the time, including Roman Cieslewicz, Eryk Lipinski and Henryk Tomaszewski.

We don’t often hear of the role of Poland in the history of visual design and this publication goes far to tell their story – I’ll be including entries on these designers soon.

Who’s got time to blog these days? The frequency has dropped off I do apologies! I couldn’t resist featuring the work of George Giusti though, I think i have fallen in love with the expressive, hand crafted work of the 50s – it’s so beautiful and hits me int he heart, and if I am going to feature the likes of Paul Rand, Milton Glaser and Fortune Magazine then I have to include George.

Here are just a small set of samples from his very long and prosperous career – since I have little time to write in my own words – here is a morphing of several articles describing his career:

George Giusti (1908-1991) studied at the Brera Academy of Arts in Milan and practised design there until moving to Switzerland in 1928. On a visit to the US in 1938, he was enticed to stay and work with Herbert Matter on the Swiss Pavilion for the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

For more than four decades in America, and before that in Italy and Switzerland, George Giusti’s graphic designs have graced the covers of Time, Fortune, Holiday and other major magazines, as well as most of the publications of the United States Information Agency. He has done advertising and graphic designs, illustrations, trademarks, client and employee publications, and package designs for major corporations. He served for ten years as art consultant to Geigy Pharmaceuticals in the United States and Switzerland.

In all of Giusti’s graphics, he has avoided the classical and sought instead a contemporary, even futuristic effect. He has succeeded to the extent that his designs are consistently ahead of their time.

It is Giusti’s expressed intention to build a bridge between fine art and art for commercial use. He disdains the terms “fine” and “commercial” as defining a distinction which should not exist. Art is art, he believes, whatever its purported use.

Savanah Design’s studio was the scene of a murder this week – a gunman broke through the door and shot a guy in the chest and made his escape out the window – the detectives visited and are looking into it – it was shocking! Where were we? we were working from home at the time!

Perhaps I should explain further – our studio became the set for an upcoming episode of City Homicide – yes, our humble studio here in Fitzroy. Our studio was flattered and some of the furniture are strutting around with inflated egos – particularly one of our chairs that graced Aaron Pedersen ass

It happened quickly – 1 day to prep, 1 day to shoot and half a day to clean up – leaving us a little rattled, it sort of felt as though we had been ransacked but nothing was taken! It was a lot of fun – spent time on set and saw the behind the scenes action – they are a great crew – very friendly, warm and professional – they have a deft eye for detail and ensured everyone involved is happy – including the fashion designer in the studio above who wore slippers that day to avoid making noise – she was rewarded with a very nice bottle of champers.

The scene involved gun fire, murder, blood all wrapped up in the grungy, natural look of this building. The art department camouflaged a lot of our furniture – too modern they said – clad the walls with 70s wood paneling and brought in their own wall cabinets, desks and objects – including a stuffed squirrel, a must-have for any detective’s office.

We would have liked to have shown the actors and crew in some pics but getting permission was too difficult – though in the pics below you’ll see the director reviewing the next scene.

Look out for the episode – somewhere near December 2009, episode 15, 16 of this season.

I’m always curious about new ways to create linework drawings with my eyes opened to new technology that comes along. We’ve all been very used to drawing in a 2D plane, but how about drawing in 3D space? It appears you just have to wait long enough and bingo! someone will come up with it. The tool is call Rhonda and it opens up more possibilities for us designers – moving line towards sculpture!

While I’m at it showing films of notable designers – here’s a film on Stephan Sagmeister with the launch of his recent book “Things I have learned so far”, with guest comments from other notable designers.

With a fresh interest in the masters of design currently going around and realising the wealth of inspirational dialogue they can offer the rest of us we are seeing efforts to capture the their passion, their visions, and ability to sustain a life in design. Following on from my last entry, here is a small interview with Milton Glaser from the Hillman Curtis series.